A letter to Andrew Duncan, senior, M.D. ... regarding the establishment of a new infirmary / by Richard Poole.

  • Poole, Richard, 1780?-1870.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Andrew Duncan, senior, M.D. ... regarding the establishment of a new infirmary / by Richard Poole. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    much more in the habit, for good reasons also, 1 of smuggling themselves into the hands of pri- I vate practitioners—very obscure ones I was going I to say,—but the word, to the disgrace of our * police, ought to be notorious,—than of parading the wards of a public hospital. The necessity of i the case, therefore, does not seem to me in any I way claimant. But, allowing it to be much f greater—allowing the number of such patients to I be vastly more than I have imagined, I do not | hesitate to question, to deprecate, the operation, on popular feeling, of an institution, the name 2 and character of which are a stigma on public I morals, and its very benefits a lenitive and solace, 1 if not a stimulus, in the path of vice. Far be it < from me to refuse aid to the truly unfortunate 1 beings who might most deservedly be the inmates ( of such an asylum. I mean no reproach,—and I 1 know that the interests, at least the comforts,. 1 of society, enjoin their temporary seclusion. 1 But, it is my distinct impression, that the less is« publicly said or known of such receptacles the.j 1 better; and, therefore, I would rather sanctioni some such silent barely recognized system, for the' 1 cure of such patients, as is adopted in the Royal! Infirmary, guarding, of course, against the shock- ing evil you have disclosed, than act on the broad,, patent, and palpable principle which you have been at pains to recommend to Sir William andi his friends. Only think, dear Sir, of the ominous-